Photo Hiking Journal

Quartzsite Piper L-4 NC5932 4/26/14

This Piper L-4 Grasshopper crashed landed southeast of Quartzsite, Arizona. Don't know the story behind the accident, but from the looks of the wreckage it should have been survivable. I think that the registration number is NC5932, but don't have a date or the cause of the accident. I originally thought that this airplane was a J-3 Cub, but after checking out the wreckage I believe that it is actually a L-4 which was the military's version of the J-3 used for scouting, mail delivery, and moving personnel. After World War II, many were sold for civilian use.

On the drive to the start of the hike. I've been to Arizona many times in the past for different reasons, but this is the first crash site that I'm visiting in this state.

Took a little 4X4 driving to get here, but made it okay.

My first view of the wreckage. Most of the fuselage frame and both wings remain at the site.

The tail section has been cut off. Looks like almost anything that could be salvaged has been taken.

The motor mount, no sign of the engine.

The fuel tank. Doing a little research on the Piper L-4s and J-3s, found out that they had their fuel tanks mounted in the cockpit between the firewall and instrument panel. The PA-11 and later models had the tank mounted in the wing.

Damage on the fuel tank. Looks like a dangerous place to mount a tank.

What lead me to believe that this is a L-4 are the window frames. The J-3 would have had the rounded rear side windows.

View from the rear shows where the tail section has been cut off.

View of the right side shows the opened lower door frame.

Closer view of the door frame.

The door in the closed position, the top door was missing.

Looking into the cockpit.

The front throttle lever.

A piece of the instrument panel remained.

Front rudder pedals.

An overall view of the right wing. First thing I noticed was it had wooden main spars. Piper went to all metal wing construction after WWII.

Closer view of the aileron showing its construction.

This view of the bottom side shows the aileron horn, rear and front wing strut mounts.

Front spar with the aileron pulleys and strut mount. A piece of the wing strut remains attach to the mount.

View from the wing tip.

Most of the wing ribs were missing.

Closer view of one of the fragile looking ribs.

This view shows the front wing strut mount. I don't know the accident date, but by the weathering of the wood spar, looks like it was a long time ago.

View of the right wing looking from the root section. One of the mounts to attach the wing to the fuselage can be seen on the rear spar.

Close up of the wing mount. Looks like it was unbolted from the fuselage.

The front mount from the left wing was still attached to the fuselage, looks like that wing was torn off during the accident.

The left wing.

Looking down the aileron. After taking this photo, I noticed that this was the bottom side of the wing.

This view shows that the tip section is up against the fuselage. The wing strut mounts can be seen pointing to the root section.

Aileron control horn and lower cable. The tube in front of the horn limits the downward travel.

Rear strut mount. Looks like the strut was torn off, the other three were cut off.

Front strut mount and aileron pulleys and cables.

There wasn't even a trace of the fabric covering on the wings or fuselage. Couldn't have burned off or else the wing spars wouldn't survived.

Looking from the root section towards the tip.

Another view of the aileron.

There was also a lot of small pieces scattered around the area.

This piece and some others showed signs of fire.

One of the mounts that attach the wing to the fuselage.

Pieces of wing ribs.

One of the landing gear legs.

Closer view showing the bearings and the remains of the wheel.

Part of the landing gear suspension.

Another part of the landing gear suspension. This part has the mounts for the bungees.